International RTI Day 2018

Sri Lanka being included among the countries, where Right to Information is ensured, is not only an indication of the establishment of democracy and good governance within the country a victory of Sri Lankan citizens. The Right to Information Act passed in the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 04th August, 2016 has currently been listed as the third best Right to Information Act in the world.

Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, on which the responsibility of implementing the Right to Information Act is devolved, has taken a tremendous effort towards the active implementation of this Act. In addition, the formulation of the structures if the Public Authorities which come under the Act, gazetting of Regulations, appointment and training of Information Officers islandwide, training of trainers, public awareness programmes and publicity programmes are in continuous conduct.

It has been observed that in order to realize the desired goals of this Act, the citizens should go beyond their personal interests and tend towards requesting information for the welfare of the public. Therefore, the year 2018 has been named as the “Year of Public Awareness” and the following programmes have been planned to be conducted in coincidence with the International Day of Right to Information, which falls on 28th of September

To declare the week from 21st to 28th September, 2018 as the “Information Week”;

To issue a circular directing all public institutions to involve in activities related to the Right to Information Act during the aforesaid week;

To conduct debate and essay competitions in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to cover the schools islandwide in parallel to this week;

To call for abstracts of researches conducted by Universities in relation to this Act and to conduct an international conference on 28th September, 2018 in Nelum Pokuna Theatre.

To implement an RTI mobile service titled “Right to Information to the Village” to coincide with the Right to Information Week.